Pyrotechnics is the science of using materials capable of undergoing self-contained and self-sustained exothermic chemical reactions for the production of heat, light, gas, smoke and, in some cases, sound. A person who performs these actions are called a Pyrotechnician, and the need to do so is called Pyromania. During the preparing for the Battle of Hogwarts on the 1 May of 1998, when Minerva McGonagall wanted a couple of students to blow up the Covered Bridge, Minerva referred to Seamus Finnigan as having a particular proclivity for pyrotechnics, remembering all the time he got himself blown up.